Farmington High School - Laurel Yearbook (Farmington, ME)

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272 THE LAUREL The years passed swiftly for the flourish- ing little town, and then a new need arose. This need was for military organization. Under the state law of that time, each town was obliged to provide its own military stores and equip its own militia. The train- ing of this militia created a new diversion for the people who whole-heartedly supported the proposition. A few years after the militia was formed, a cavalry was organized. This was done only when rumors of a war with England were in the air in 1812. How- ever, when war was Finally declared, so far as can now be ascertained, only two Farm- ington men, David Bump and Elisha Iewett, enlisted in the United States army and per- formed actual service on the Held. The military organizations were maintained and a brigade review was held in 1827 with Governor Lincoln and his staff present. However, a few years later the only material remnant of Farmington's military glory was a few stones on a hill, the remains of a build- ing for storing ammunition built in 1817, and the abstract remnant, its name, Powder House Hill. Before many years had elapsed, churches were established, railroads were chartered, schools were built, and then came the crisis which split the country into two divisions, both embittered by sectional antagonism. Farmington was definitely loyal, meeting all her quotas of soldiers, nursing the wounded, and raising money. However the years fol- lowing the opening of the war were anxious and troublesome times for the town. When the news of the assassination of President Lincoln reached Farmington, it was a signal for mourning throughout the town. The years rolled on with the first public library being built, a Franklin County Sav- ings Bank organized, and then a real dis- aster struck. It was the great fire of 1886. This destructive conliagration started in a stable on Pleasant Street and swept away nearly every building on Main Street down to South Street. It was a calamity that will long be remembered by those who wit- nessed it. Farmington at the present time is deh- nitely an educational center. The Farming- ton State Normal School was established in 1864. The high school was completed in 1906 and has been enlarged since, the last addition was in 1936. The Training School building was built in 1931. Now the town has within its limits an admirable public library, built in 1901 in memory of Nathan Cutler, and the Franklin Memorial Hospital, opened in 1929. The personage of whom Farmington is the proudest is Madame Lillian Nordica, a famous opera singer who was born in this town. Madame Nordica made her debut in Italy and later appeared in London and in the New York Metropolitan Opera House. Her home, which has been kept as nearly as possible as it was when she lived, is one of the most interesting spots in this vicinity. All in all, Farmington is a town of which its citizens may be justly proud. Undoubt- edly, because distance lends enchantment, if Farmington were situated some 30 or 40 miles from here, we would all be anxious to visit itg but because we live in it, we are less likely to realize what a truly beautiful and interesting place it is. Norma Vose 138. TT COURAGE T0 DARE HE interest of the people of today in aviation is increasing by leaps and bounds. The airplane is taking an important place in business and recreation. Because of this, many high-school graduates are planning to make one of its many branches their life work. Such a pilot as Amelia Earhart serves as an inspiring example to American girls. At the age of ten, when at the Iowa State Fair, she saw her First airplane. It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and did not look a bit interesting. No wonder that she was much more absorbed in an absurd hat which she had just purchased. Regardless of what psychologists might have said, in later years she hated hats and would not miss

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TI-IE LAUREL 21 upon in later years as one of the turning points of our lives. Your presence here tonight is the climax of the constant support you have given to our class throughout its four years of high school. As a slight evidence of our appreci- ation of this support which has meant so much to us, l reiterate that we sincerely welcome you. The Vivid Past Farmington, the shire town of Franklin County, is situated in the valley of the Sandy River. It is naturally divided into two portions by this river. Undoubtedly it was the beauty and fertility of the valley which attracted the explorers and settlers to this river. The explorers who first came to the Sandy River Valley found a small tribe of Indians at Messee Contee Qherring placej, the spot now known as Farmington Falls. It is un- certain when the hrst white man visited this location. Tradition states that a youth by the name of Knights was captured by Indians and brought here. I-Ie escaped and made his way through the wilderness to his home. I-Ie carried such accounts of the luxuriant vegetation of the country through which he had traversed that he induced some of his friends to explore the region. This story, however, is merely tradition, but it is certain that hunters and trappers visited this valley long before any thought of settling it was made. In the autumn of 1779, two hunters from Winthrop came here prepared to spend the winter. They trapped for beaver, otter, mink and sable. In the spring they made a crude boat, and putting their valuable cargo on board, went down the river to the Ken- nebec and thence to their homes. They were the first white men known to have passed a winter in what is now Franklin County. The Hrst settlers were aided greatly by the Indian, Pierpole, who, undismayed by the approach of the white man, remained, the last of a race which had once held undis- puted sway over the hunting grounds. Pierpole is believed to have belonged to the Androscoggin tribe. He and his family were living near the Falls when the first courageous settlers came, but Pierpole soon left and moved to Strong. The last the settlers ever saw of him was as he paddled his canoe down the river. Whether he went to Canadian waters or the ocean, no man knows. The time chosen for the settlements on the shores of the Sandy River was a fortu- nate one. The settlers who came here did not suffer from the Indians nor even the fear of the Indians. The only savage to visit their camp-lifes was Pierpole, their friend and ally. The year of 1781 came and found Stephen Titcomb trapping in Farmington and his family snowbound in Readfield. However, when the storm subsided enough to allow a team to get through, Mr. Titcomb returned to Readiield to bring his family back to the Sandy River Valley. With the families of Titcomb, Brown, and Davis began the first civilized life in the future town of Farm- ington. The growth of the town was compara- tively rapid, for at the end of the first decade the census numbered to 494 inhabitants. Mills were operating, schools were estab- lished and the people were nearly indepen- dent of the outside world. Although no definite mail route was established, a Mr. Willis began to bring newspapers to the township about 1790, and a few years later, a weekly mail line was opened to Hallo- well. Modern people would have found few entertainments existing in those days. There were no churches formed to act as the center of social functions as only a few itinerant preachers found their way to this opening in the wilderness. In this wilderness, however, the town meetings were of serious importance. They were examples of pure democracy, a govern- ment of the people, for the people, and by the people. They acted on articles ranging from the amount of the salary of a minister to the care of straying cattle.

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THE LAUREL 23 a chance to see an airplane, no matter how rusty it was. The next airplane she saw was at the ex- position hcld at Toronto, Canada. Some war heroes were giving exhibitions. In 1918, to relieve the monotony and to make life more exciting, pilots would dive on crowds at beaches and fairs. Today the De- partment of Commerce frowns upon such antics. Miss Earhart and a girl friend were in the middle of the Held, somewhat sepa- rated from the crowd. The pilot, seeing this tempting target, dove on them for the fun of seeing them scamper. He tried several times. One of them rang the other, later to achieve world fame as an aviatrix, stood her ground, fascinated. On a summer vacation in California she became very much interested in air meets. It was at one of these that she took her First ride, with the then unknown barnstormer, Frank Hawkes. With this trip her flying career began. Helped by her mother, she bought a little second-hand plane and learned to Hy it. While working in a social settlement in Boston, she received a surprising message asking if she would like to ily the Atlantic. She went to New York to see if she could meet the requirements. The man who was searching for a woman to make this trip was George Palmer Putnam, whom she later married. In Iune, 1928, after having been accepted and after many weeks of preparation, her plane, the Friendship, with mechanic Lou Gordon, pilot Bill Stultz and passenger Amelia Earhart, took off from Boston Har- bor for Newfoundland. After thirteen days of tiresome waiting at Trepassey, Newfound- land, conditions became satisfactory for the crossing. The Atlantic flight began. Twenty hours and forty minutes later, they tied up to a bouy off Burryport, Wales. Four years later in a three year old Lock- heed she made a solo flight across the At- lantic. The bad storm, the flames leaking out around the exhaust collector ring, and the spin caused by heavily iced wings were the high-lights of the trip. When she arrived at Londonderry, Ireland and landed in a cow-pasture, not knowing the proper words to say at such a time, she merely stated, I 'm from America. In April, 1935, upon an official invitation from the Mexican government, she Hew from Burbank, California, to Mexico City. There a superb Fiesta was staged for her. Regret- fully, because of not having so much time there as she would have liked, she set out for New York. Upon landing at Newark airport, she was mobbed by a crowd from which a couple of husky policemen tried to rescue her. The only difliculty was that they lacked co-operation, and in the melee one grasped her arm and the other her leg. Then, to make matters worse, they started in opposite directions. Miss Earhart was connected with Purdue University as a faculty member in the new aviation department. One of her pet schemes, which seems entirely logical, was to have a miscellaneous workshop, labeled Tinkering: For Girls Only. She believed that girls who have mechanical ability and who don't have a chance, as boys do, to tinker with machines should be encouraged. She often said she was as much concerned with the problems and opportunities of her Purdue co-eds as with aviation. Mr. Putnam, who practices as well as approves of the theory that wives should do the work they are best fitted for, was a help- ful and approving partner in all her projects. Knowing her desire for a bigger and better plane which would allow her to pioneer in the held of aviation education and technical experimentation, he started the wheels mov- ing to get it for her. ChieHy through the Purdue Research Foundation and the generosity of manufac- turers who seemed to think her activities were helpful in furthering aviation and also in overcoming feminine sales-resistance to air travel, she came into possession of her two-motor Lockheed Electra, her Hying laboratory.